According to Jinshi, Federal Reserve Governor Bowman said on Thursday that she supports last month's rate cut, believing it was the "final step" in the Federal Reserve's monetary policy adjustment, as inflation risks have risen and caution is needed going forward. "We should also avoid pre-judging the future policies of the new administration," Bowman said in a prepared speech to the California Bankers Association. "Instead, we should wait for clearer signals and then seek to understand the impact on economic activity, the labor market and inflation." This is the first time Bowman has made these remarks since becoming a leading candidate to be the Federal Reserve's next top banking regulator. Barr announced this week that he will step down as the Fed's vice chairman for supervision at the end of next month. Bowman said, "This year will see a change in bank leadership, and I expect this to translate into a shift in priorities and approaches." She reiterated her longstanding call for more targeted regulation and a more "pragmatic" approach to policymaking.
Cynthia Lummis Poised to Lead New U.S. Senate Digital Asset Subcommittee
According to The Block, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee plans to appoint crypto-friendly Senator Cynthia Lummis to lead the newly formed Digital Asset Subcommittee, fulfilling the incoming chairman's promise. Some Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee have preliminarily selected the subcommittee's leadership and members, but the committee vote is still pending. A Senate aide revealed that Lummis will lead a Digital Asset Subcommittee whose members include crypto-supportive Senators Bill Hagerty and newly elected Senator Bernie Moreno. The incoming committee chairman, Tim Scott, had previously stated that if elected, he would establish a subcommittee focused on digital assets. The current chairman, Sherrod Brown, has been critical of the crypto industry, calling for crackdowns on related illicit activities. The Senate Banking Committee's leadership is crucial, as the chairman wields the power of the purse for legislation, including crypto bills.
Previously, yesterday's news reported that the U.S. House Financial Services Committee appointed Bryan Steil as chairman of the Digital Asset Subcommittee.
Bloomberg: As Trump's Inauguration Nears, Crypto CEOs Vie for Access
According to Bloomberg, with less than two weeks until Trump's inauguration, crypto industry executives are vying for access to Trump himself and positions on a planned crypto advisory council expected to be formed shortly after he takes office. Insiders say the industry aims to use this council to influence the new administration's digital asset policies, and it could consist of around two dozen chief executives and founders. Sources say most of the likely appointees have already established relationships with Trump and have visited him in recent months. Trump and his inner circle, including incoming White House AI and crypto expert David Sacks, are still weighing potential appointees. Since Trump's re-election in November, Mar-a-Lago has hosted a stream of crypto industry figures, including Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Additionally, companies like Circle, Coinbase, Kraken, and Ondo have all pledged donations to Trump's inauguration.
Google Donates $1 Million to Trump Inauguration Fund
According to CNBC, Google has donated $1 million to President-elect Trump's 2025 inauguration fund, making it the latest tech company seeking to establish good relations with the new administration. Karan Bhatia, Google's Vice President of Global Government Affairs and Public Policy, stated that the company will also provide a live stream of the inauguration ceremony on YouTube and a direct link on its homepage. In addition, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta, Amazon, and Apple CEO Tim Cook have also reportedly or announced donations of $1 million to the fund. These donations indicate that major tech companies are seeking to maintain and improve their relationships with the incoming government before it takes office.
Circle Donates $1 Million USDC to Trump Presidential Inauguration Committee
According to a tweet from Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, Circle has donated $1 million USDC to the Trump Presidential Inauguration Committee.
At the "Boao Forum for Asia New Year Outlook 2025" event, Zhou Xiaochuan, former governor of the People's Bank of China, stated that the world will face profound changes and challenges in 2025: the international environment will remain highly uncertain, with intensified great power competition and setbacks in economic globalization; the global economic recovery is uncertain, as trade and technological "decoupling" forces the restructuring of supply chains; the rapid development of general artificial intelligence brings both opportunities and risks; and the climate change crisis is worsening, posing a huge challenge to sustainable development. At the same time, he emphasized that certain trends will not change by 2025: the accelerating growth of developing countries in the Global South, the direction of Asia-Pacific countries in promoting inclusive and equitable globalization, and China's determination to deepen reform and opening up.
In his speech, Zhou Xiaochuan pointed out that global public debt is about to exceed $100 trillion, which will increase the external financing costs and exchange rate depreciation pressures of emerging markets and developing countries, and pose challenges to the fiscal sustainability of developed countries. The impact of digital crypto assets on global financial stability and security needs to be closely monitored.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) wrote in its October 2024 Fiscal Monitor Report that global public debt is at a very high level (the size of U.S. debt has already exceeded $36 trillion). By the end of this year (2024), the size of global public debt is expected to exceed $100 trillion (93% of global GDP); by 2030, it will approach 100% of GDP. This is 10 percentage points higher than the ratio in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Grok iOS App Now Available on App Store
The official app for the artificial intelligence model Grok, developed by Elon Musk's xAI company, has been launched on the iOS platform and is currently available for download in at least the U.S. and the Philippines App Stores. It can be accessed by linking or searching for X.AI, but the company has not yet released an official launch announcement.
According to Cryptoslate, a team of members from Coinbase, Google, a16z, and other major participants have launched Aiccelerate, a new decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) aimed at accelerating the convergence of cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence (AI). The announcement on January 9 shows that the DAO will focus on promoting decentralized, open-source AI development and supporting high-potential projects across different ecosystems. Additionally, Aiccelerate positions itself as a DAO that emphasizes both investment and development. Its primary mission is to drive innovation in the so-called "proxy AI" domain. The DAO aims to establish a collaborative community composed of top developers from various frameworks, who will contribute to a range of proxies and tools intended to advance the organization's objectives. Furthermore, Aiccelerate will unify its initiatives through a token called AICC, and the DAO will use a portion of its profits to buy back its native token. The list of development advisors includes ai16z founder Shaw, Virtuals Protocol core contributor EtherMage, EigenLayer developer relations lead Nader Dabit, and Story Protocol co-founder Jason Zhao. On the investment side, Aiccelerate's advisors include Andrew Kang and Marc Weinstein from Mechanism Capital, Justin Lee from Coinbase Ventures, and Anil Lulla from Delphi Digital.
Standard Chartered Bank Obtains Luxembourg License to Provide Digital Asset Custody Services
Standard Chartered Bank announced that its newly established Luxembourg entity will serve as a regulatory gateway to the EU market, providing cryptocurrency and digital asset custody services to EU clients. Luxembourg's balanced regulatory and financial environment can meet the growing demands of the EU market. Previously, Standard Chartered had launched digital asset custody services in the United Arab Emirates. Laurent Marochini has been appointed as the CEO of the Luxembourg entity, having previously served as the Head of Innovation at Société Générale in France. Standard Chartered stated that this move will help its institutional clients enter the digital asset ecosystem and provide strong support for the transformation of traditional finance.
InfiniGods to Launch Native Token GOD, with 17% Allocated to its NFT Holders
According to The Defiant, the crypto game InfiniGods is currently preparing to launch its native token GOD. The GOD token will be distributed among the ecosystem's NFT holders, with 4.25% allocated to InfiniPass holders, 3.25% to Elder Gods NFT, and 9.5% to God Vault NFT holders. The TGE date has not been set yet, but InfiniGods' Chief Marketing Officer Bry DiSanto hinted at an upcoming airdrop, posting on X that "January, the time is near." InfiniGods is a mobile gaming studio founded in 2022, having previously raised a $9 million seed round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Framework Ventures and Animoca Brands. The company then raised $8 million in April 2024 and $1.3 million in a strategic round led by Arete Capital in December.
VanEck Executive: Block May Become the First S&P 500 Company to Hold Bitcoin
Matthew Sigel, VanEck's Head of Digital Asset Research, posted on X that the fintech company Block may become the first S&P 500 company to hold bitcoin. For a stock to be included in the index, it must meet six main criteria: 1) a market capitalization of at least $18 billion; 2) a public float of at least 10%; 3) positive earnings in the most recent quarter and a positive sum of the last four quarters' GAAP earnings; 4) high liquidity; 5) listed for at least 12 months; and 6) headquartered in the US. Block has met the final criterion (earnings) in its Q1 2024 financial report. However, inclusion in the S&P 500 is not strictly formula-driven but at the discretion of the index committee. Historically, companies meeting all requirements have been added within 3 to 21 months (with LULU as an exception at 65 months). Sector diversification is one of the factors considered by the committee, aiming to maintain an industry composition consistent with the broader economy. The term "consistent with the broader economy" is not explicitly defined, but the S&P 500 can be used as a reference, where financials currently account for 13.9% of the index, compared to 14.6% in the broader index, indicating room for an increase in the financial sector.
Coinbase International to List AERO, BEAM, and DRIFT Perpetual Contracts
Coinbase International announced on X that Coinbase International and Coinbase Advanced will add support for perpetual futures contracts on Aerodrome Finance, Beam, and Drift. The AERO-PERP, BEAM-PERP, and DRIFT-PERP markets are expected to open on or after January 16, 2025, at 17:30 Beijing time.
Binance to List PHA/USDC, PLN/USDC, and Other Spot Trading Pairs
Binance will list PHA/USDC, PLN/USDC, STEEM/USDC, and USUAL/USDC spot trading pairs on January 10, 2025, at 16:00 (UTC+8). The platform will also simultaneously launch its open trading bot service.
According to Metis' official announcement, the Metis network has experienced intermittent outages over the past few hours due to a surge in mainnet transactions, causing congestion in the L1DTL (Layer 1 Data Transaction Layer). The team is currently upgrading the L1DTL memory to resolve the issue and is working on the recovery process.
MANTRA Blockchain to Tokenize at Least $1 Billion in Assets with DAMAC Group
According to CoinDesk, the MANTRA blockchain has reached an agreement with the UAE-based real estate giant DAMAC Group to tokenize at least $1 billion in assets by early 2025. DAMAC's asset portfolio spans real estate development, hotel management, and data centers. Through tokenization, DAMAC aims to simplify traditional investment processes and improve accessibility for retail and institutional investors. The specific assets and product details to be tokenized will be announced in the coming weeks. MANTRA's mainnet launched in October 2024, focusing on bringing traditional financial assets onto the blockchain, and has already reached an agreement with another Dubai developer, MAG Group, to tokenize $500 million in assets. DAMAC started accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum as payment in 2022.
BIO Protocol Expands to Solana Mainnet, Supported by Wormhole Bridge
According to the BIO Protocol official announcement, its DeSci (Decentralized Science) project has launched on the Solana mainnet and supports cross-chain functionality through the Wormhole protocol. Users can transfer BIO tokens (contract address: bioJ9JTqW62MLz7UKHU69gtKhPpGi1BQhccj2kmSvUJ) between the Ethereum mainnet and Solana using the official bridge service (bridge.bio.xyz). The team stated that this move lays the foundation for BIO Protocol's multi-chain ecosystem and revealed that more plans will be unveiled in January and February.
CleanSpark's Bitcoin Holdings Surpass 10,000 BTC
Mining company CleanSpark Inc. (Nasdaq: CLSK) announced that it has self-mined 10,097 bitcoins in its U.S.-based mining operations, surpassing the 10,000 BTC milestone. CEO Zach Bradford stated that each bitcoin was supported by American energy and produced in the United States, reflecting the company's commitment to sustainable growth and innovation in the global Bitcoin ecosystem.
Bitcoin ETFs See Net Outflows of 4,964 BTC, Ethereum ETFs See 4,701 ETH Net Outflows
According to Lookonchain monitoring data, 10 Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of 4,964 BTC (approximately $458.3 million) in the past day. The iShares (Blackrock) ETF had a net outflow of 1,319 BTC (approximately $121.8 million), and currently holds 557,882 BTC (approximately $51.5 billion). Additionally, 9 Ethereum ETFs recorded a net outflow of 4,701 ETH (approximately $15.21 million), with the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust seeing a net outflow of 3,298 ETH (approximately $10.67 million), and currently holding 471,912 ETH (approximately $1.53 billion).
Jump Trading Transfers Over $20 Million in Stablecoins to CEX in the Past Hour
On-chain data shows that in the past hour, Jump Trading has transferred over $20 million in stablecoins, including USDT and USDC, to multiple centralized exchanges (CEXs). Specifically: • Transferred 2.107 million USDT, worth about $2.11 million, to Binance; • Transferred a total of $18 million USDC to Coinbase, including one transfer of $10 million and another of $8.913 million.
